Its not the team but its the Occasion to beware of this time!!!

With a quite amazing world cup Finale on our hands and after the First three quarter finals where in the first two produced quite expected results and the third with an totally unexpected one we head to a mouthwatering treat for the Semis!! Well if there had to be one upset then there can be no better team to entertain an upset other than the PROVEN CHOKERS –“ SOUTH AFRICA”!!! This world cup has been as thrilling as an AGATHA CRISTIE or SIDNEY SHELDON’s novel where no one can predict with full confidence who is going to win because every team has it in them to beat any team on their day!!! While every team has some weak points like the PAKISTAN’s fragile batting order, Sri lanka’s inconsistent lower order and England being the total definition of Unpredictable and Inconsistent the only team that seems to have minimal of flaws is INDIA whose bowling weakness seems to be good enough to hold on for a successful World Cup campaign!!! And after Today’s unexpected exit of South Africa the Indians are even bigger favorites to lift this World Cup and thus are under even bigger pressure!!!
Well after a match that ended the 12 year long World Cup dominance of the Australian team we can safely say that we would have a new World Champ and that too most probably will be a subcontinent team!!! And after the end of the EPIC battle INDIA vs ASTRALIA it is again safe to say that though it was a tensed match but INDIA had an upper hand right from the start as they never let Aussies go out of control. India was always an edge ahead at every point of time in the match. Not to forget one of the greatest Knocks by an Australian captain that too under immense pressure regarding his Captainship and form with people calling to chop off his head.. RICKY PONTING replied with an amazing knock that defines his Character!! That’s what why they say that ‘When the Going gets tough, the tough gets going’ and that surely doesn’t apply to the South African team. But besides Ponting’s Career saving century there was nothing formidable from the Aussies.
Now coming on to the Baap Of all the Contests INDIA vs PAKISTAN the biggest match of this World Cup India again would start as the favorites and should be able to win it unless they Choke like..well everyone should know by now!!! The reason for downplaying Pakistan a bit is that their batting line up is too inconsistent and unreliable. While in their bowling I see only one threat in the form of UMAR GUL the rest are just overhyped. Yes no one poses a threat for Indian batsmen not Whab RIaz nor Abdul Razzak nor Shoaib Akhtar and I go to the extent of saying not Even Shahid Afridi. And here is the logic behind this.. no doubt Shahid Afridi is the leading wicket taker in this tournament but out of the 21 wickets that he has taken 10 are against Minnows, the 4 against Sri Lanka didn’t involve either Sangakkara Jayawardene or Dilshan another 4 against West Indies who had already lost early wickets.His wickets mostly are of tail enders with 2-3 wickets of quality top order batsmen in rarity. And adding to his woes Indians can handle spin better than anyone in the subcontinent. The only thing to beware of is the Big Occasion of the INDIA vs PAKISTAN semi final clash for the World Cup that too in INDIA!! And with temper high and the adrenaline rush things can go wrong easily and Pakistani team becomes deadly dangerous under such high pressure situation!! This bitter hard fought rivalry and the mutual hatred brings out the best of everyone and Pakistan team at its best is not what Indians or for that matter any team would like to face!!!
Here is a situation where in the talent and skill and the past performances can count for nothing if you are unable to handle the pressure!!! Great teams have lost crucial battles for lack of sensible approach and what India needs to do come this Wednesday is to follow the basics of the game as if things go as planned India have enough fire power to kick out Pakistan form this tournament.
Data Courtesy: castrolcricket.com

Is it the PAWN or THE KING?

After the Epic battle of the two Giants INDIA and SOUTH AFRICA the only two names that we constantly keep hearing are NEHRA and DHONI.This match has again given the Indian public their favorite time pass i.e. to play the BLAME GAME and the worst thing about this is that most of us are analyzing the game only on its Face value and cursing Ashsih Nehra for the loss!!! First of all Dhoni was the one who ignored the most obvious choice to bowl the last over i.e. The Turbanator ‘Harbhajan Singh’ and gave it to Ashish Nehra who hadn’t been playing till the last game!!! And then when asked about the rationale behind the decision Dhoni said that Nehra has been the best bowler for India in past one and a half years!!! So what was this best Indian bowler doing warming up the benches during the previous matches!!! No doubt Ashish Nehra did bowl the wrong lengths for the last over but don’t forget that one of the fours was of the Inside edge and that was a the type of luck that used to go in Dhoni’s favour till now!! The times are changing and the Chokers are now for a change performing under pressure and more importantly Dhoni’s Midas touch with his last over gambles is not paying off!!! And once has the Gamble not paid off for our Captain cool, he has turned to some of the lousiest and lamest excuse ever given by any captain in the history of cricket! His Statement that WE DON’T PLAY FOR THE PUBLIC BUT WE PLAY FOR THE COUNTRY was uncalled for and a bit out of the blue!!! If the crowd was demanding for sixes it was due to their ever so comfortable position that they were placed in before the procession began!!! It seemed like the TOP 3 of the Indian batting line up have taken the full onus of winning the World Cup for the Nation and all the others were against them!!! At 267 for 1 at the end of 40 overs any spectator or any Captain in that matter would have expected their team to go all out for the last ten overs. Indians should take a leaf out of the New Zealanders books and learn how to approach the last ten overs as the Kiwis have been now successful in scoring 130+ and 120+ in their last two games in the last ten overs!! And this was not due to no crowd pressure but proper shot selection and correct approach unlike the Indian players!! And finally no excuse can ever justify a procession of losing 9 wickets for 29 runs!!!!
Again Dhoni should be under the scanner for the type of game that he played in the match as to first of all he was too slow which increased the pressure on the new batsmen and over and above how can a captain be so irresponsible to take a single on the first ball of the death overs against a quality pace bowler like dale steyn and give strike to tale-enders like nehra and munaf!!! Shouldn’t he have protected the tale-enders and gone for the big shots himselves!!! Another inexplicable strategic move was to play 3 pace bowlers and just one specialist spinner against a team that loves pace whereas the Africans themselves went in with 2 specialist spinners. I have always said that India’s strength lies in its spin bowling and with these subcontinent pitches if we don’t take advantage of it then it would be the biggest blunder. It would even be great if we can go in with 3 spinners or even 2 spinners but with 5 specialist bowling options!!! India still no doubt is the Biggest contender to Win the WORLD CUP and I am backing them to pull of this amazing feat this time round!!! The only thing that would be holding them back would be their own strategies and I wish they realize it soon before its too late!!!!
Data Courtesy - castrolcricket.com

STAY HUNGRY STAY FOOLISH

This is the title of a novel that I just saw my friend reading and this seems to totally justify what I am going to talk about in this blog. Stay Hungry Stay Foolish is the motto for all the buzzing entrepreneurs and so should it be for all the Captains of various different teams in this world cup. And this especially applies to the Indian team. While Dhoni seems to be doing many things right and is keeping it cool but the thing that he is constantly lacking in is the Killers’s Instinct!! Its now been twice that we have been in a good situation in the beginning with the opposition team 2 or 3 wickets down early and could have been able to close down on the match early but for Dhoni’s what I like to call ‘The Escape approach’. Whenever we are in a good situation with having got some early wickets or a highly required breakthrough he tends to bring on Yusuf pathan or Yuvraj singh the part time bowlers to slip through with their overs that releases all the pressure!! No doubt this again is a smart move bt If u have a chance to finish the match in 40 overs by bowling the opposition out why not go for it!! By doing so u don’t even need to use the part timers. Never have I seen Dhoni going for a kill and this is a change that I wish to see some day form him!! Compared to Dhoni his counterparts Graeme smith and Afridi have been quite proactive on this front as when they see an opportunity to bowl the opposition out early they go for it!!! Take the Example of the match PAK vs NZ wherein when the KIWIS lost their 2nd wicket in the 12th over and with Ross taylor being horribly out of form Afridi brought back Shoaib Akhtar to bowl alongside the on-fire Umar gul who almost had Taylor out twice in an over. He gave extended spells to his bowlers and so did Grame Smith in their match against Engalnd. Under this scenario Both the captians might have lost but that was due to some other reason other than their tactics. While for Pakistan it was again due to their sloppy fielding, the Proteas got defeated again by themselves and Choked under pressure. But on a positive note they showed the desire and the Hunger for more and remained aggressive. Stay hungry and Stay foolish is all about going all out for the victory wanting more and more and making things happen rather than being satisfied with small successes.
With India now slated to face off against the South Africans one the topmost contenders for the world cup and looking even more dangerous after their disastrous match against England, India need to be wary of the threat. Also it is for the first time that they have choked in a match that was not a Knock-out game and thus they have a chance to regroup and fightback hard. And it is well known that a Injured Lion gets Doubly dangerous. And if Dhoni and team India continue their ‘The Escape Approach’ against South Africa it can prove to be fatal as first of all our bowlers seem to be incapable of taking regular breakthroughs and then after a lot of effort even if they succeed in doing so the so gained momentum is given away by the introduction of the Part timers and South Africa are a team that don’t believe in giving a second chance. Thus Dhoni instead of Chanting ‘Jam k jakad kas k pakad lagaaa… ‘ should chant this “Stay Hungry Stay Foolish”.

An Unlucky TIE!!!

Just as the dust settles after the epic India vs England a, “Heartstopping Encounter” people are busy in anaylsing what went wrong with the Indian team!!!!!!!!! No doubt again the problem with India was their poor bowling and fielding as these things are echoing in every expert comments. But many have failed to notice what went right in that game!!! Yes RIGHT!!!!!!!!! This analysis is gonna be a bit different!!! How..??? Let me tell you, inspite of the tied game where India were unsuccessful in defending a mammoth score of 338, the positives of the match were that for the first time India tried out playing two specialist spinners which inspite of the result was a good move. India has great resources in spin department and we need to utilize it properly and make it our strength! No dubt Yusuf and Yuvraj can spin but they are not as effective as a Chawla or Ashwin!!! Secondly the fighting spirit that the Indian team showed was commendable as when they got an opening they just didn’t let England get away easily!!! Third was the return to form of Yuvraj Singh. Though he didn’t look that convincing but atleast he had a decent outing in the middle which would do his confidence a world of good. An area where Dhoni went wrong in the last game was when Chawla took a wicket and was bowling well he introduced Yusuf and Yuvraj which eased off the pressure and didn’t bring him back till the 35th over. Had Chawla continued may b the result would have been different. India still seems to be carrying on the legacy of Saurav Ganguly… now why I say that is It was Saurav Ganguly who started this concept of playing 7 batsmen in the team with only 4 specialist bowlers but back then the scenario was quite different as we didn’t have a good keeper batsmen!! Now we don’t only have just a reliable wicket keeper batsmen but he also is the best in the world. . We need to break this legacy and start picking 5 regular bowlers as our batting is strong enough and even if that’s not convincing we have Harbhajan who is in great form off late and a Zaheer Khan who can contribute too.India should take a lesson from the South African team who played 3 specialist spinners the last time they took field. Indian tracks are conducive to spin bowling and even a domestic player of the Kenyan U-19 cricket would know that and if India doesnt utilize this then it would be a big blunder. And that’s the reason why I call this as an unlucky TIE not bcoz of its result but bcoz it was for the first time India did something which was right i.e. playing 2 specialist spinners and promoting Yuvraj and Dhoni ahead of Kohli to regain their form and all this is being washed out and overlooked just bcoz The match ended in a TIE!!!!!!!!!!!!

DATA CORTESY: castrolcricket.com